Instead, they're just stuffing their fingers in their ears while the debt-ceiling deadline rolls ever closer (and sucking up to their "bases" to make sure they get re-elected.)

The Republicans, for example, continue to stick to their insistence that we fix our problems by slashing spending immediately and raising no additional revenue. That this position is, as the Economist said last week, "economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical," not to mention hypocritical, doesn't appear to bother them a bit.

The Democrats, meanwhile, insist that Medicare and Social Security are sacrosanct, even though these programs are clearly going to bankrupt the country unless they are modified. The Democrats' "plan" to address the deficit, in other words, appears to be to shove their heads deep in the sand.

(And if that's what they're doing, by the way, they should be fired and charged with treason. For those elected to lead the country, the country's interests should come before any political considerations).

But at least one person in Washington is now talking sense. And, happily, he's the most powerful person in the room.

To the members of both parties, who are putting their self-interests ahead of the country's:

“American democracy works when people listen to each other, we are willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt, we assume the patriotism, good intentions of the other side, and we are willing to compromise.”

To the Democrats, who are refusing to even consider tinkering with Medicare and Social Security:

Grow up. [Not an exact quote].

To the Republicans, who are fighting compromise by saying that Obama wants to "raise taxes during a recession," Obama points out that no taxes would go up until 2013:

“No one is talking about raising taxes right now... have bent over backwards to work with the Republicans that comes up with a formulation that doesn’t require them to vote sometime in the next month to increase taxes.”

And so on.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could afford EVERYTHING? Too bad we can't.

The truth about our financial situation is that it would be damn near impossible to dig ourselves out of our hole with spending cuts alone, even if they were politically feasible. And whatever we do--spending cuts AND tax increases--needs to be phased in slowly, so it doesn't clobber an already weak recovery.

To be clear about this: Over the long haul, spending does need to be cut, but slashing it now, suddenly, will deliver a hammer blow to an already frail economy. The country will plunge back into recession, unemployment will soar, and--importantly from a budget perspective--government revenues will drop. The latter outcome, which we're seeing in Greece, the UK, and other countries that have tried "austerity" as a near-term solution, will defeat the whole purpose of trying to balance the budget by cutting spending. It will lead to a sharp reduction in government revenue, which will exacerbate the situation. (Translation: It sounds sensible and prudent, but it won't work.)

Not that the Democrats' "plan" is any better. The Democrats plan appears to be to ignore the crisis, keep their heads stuffed deep in the sand with respect to Medicare, Social Security, and other spending programs, and jack up taxes only on "the rich." The latter element will have to be part of the solution to our woes, but it won't solve the problem. Spending is going to have to be cut, and taxes are likely going to have to rise for everyone.

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Right... GOP is threatening to damage US economy grievously by holding the credit rating of this country hostage. Obama is responding by making huge concessions, including cutting Social Security and Medicare. Cantor and Bohnner refuse to make any concessions, even though federal tax receipts as proportion of GDP are at lowest level since Fifties.

And it is TOTALLY incomprehensible why anyone would think Obama is being more responsible than GOP. People on this thread are FLABBERGASTED. This is not how Newsmax told them the world works.

This is why I hate partisan politics. Both parties are responsible for the mess we're in - no arguing that.

It's painfully clear that both entitlement and tax reform are needed to put the budget on the right path. Democrats want to pretend there's no crisis and Republicans want to pretend that spending cuts are a fix-all. Neither side is correct.

It's true - Obama is just gearing up for election season. That said, the logic behind his statements (whether or not he actually means them) is correct.

Surely this is in jest, right Henry? The president is in no way serious here, he's simply triangulating in an effort to boost his own re-election prospects. How quickly we all forget that Obama dismissed the admittedly not-unanimous plan proposed by his own deficit commission. How quickly we forget that Obama first asked for a totally clean raise of the debt ceiling with no cuts and no taxes. And then he proposed cutting the debt by $4 trillion over 12 years. Then he attacks "corporate jets and loopholes" with no mention of entitlements. And then finally he makes some mention of entitlements. See a pattern here?

If I was a member of the press, I'd ask him why the hell there's a debt and deficit problem anyway since the Affordable Care Act was supposed to strengthen Medicare and cut the deficit. If his health care reform plan was to seriously bend the cost curve lower and improve our financial prospects, why is he conceding that there is any problem with the costs of Medicare at all?

Are you kidding me? You think Obama is the adult in the room? The man is infantile. Where was all his supposed fiscal sanity in 2009? In 2010? For that matter, in 2007 or 2008, when he was voting present in the Senate or voting for every spending increase the Democrat Congress shoved through?

Last February, Obama proposed a budget (in a speech, not an actual budget document, mind you) for which most optimistic assumptions added at least $600 billion of new debt every year for 10 years. It has been over two years since the federal government has had a budget, and during that entire time the Congress was controlled by Democrats.

The fact is - and no amount of Obama hagiography by the left can hide it - that the annual deficits exploded beginning in 2007 when the Democrats controlled both houses. I do not defend G.W.B.'s fiscal record, but Obama makes Bush look like a piker. The graphs for federal deficits for the last 100 years, by administration, are here. See for yourself what I mean.

So Obama says that no one is talking about raising taxes? Why didn't you include the whole quote, which is: “So, when you hear folks saying ‘Well, the president shouldn’t want massive job killing tax increases when the economy is this weak.’ Nobody’s looking to raise taxes right now. We’re talking about potentially 2013 and the out years.

Once upon a time a Democrat presidential nominee could stand before the American people and say, ""We are living on borrowed money and borrowed time. These deficits hike interest rates, clobber exports, stunt investment, kill jobs, undermine growth, cheat our kids and shrink our future."

Proof that a Democrat actually said that is here. But there is no one in the Democrat party with either the courage or conviction to say that now.

Totally agree with you and Republicans are equally bad and neither party is willing to come anywhere close to making the necessary cuts/tax increases. When things get this bad nothing should be off the table.

Henry aside, most liberals know that for the most part, Obama is full of crap. But so are most of the Repub candidates. Bachmann signing that pledge yesterday? What a joke. Some of the places Romney gets campaign funds from are so disgusting.

So after everyone does their research and whether they call themselves democrats/republicans (terms that mean very little nowadays , make conversing less productive and i think, we should drop except when referring to elected officials but that will never happen) will all come to the same conclusion.........